Niagara Falls - 25 July 2012

It was a very lazy start to the morning with nothing too much to do until the bus came to collect us for our hugely overpriced tour of Niagara Falls.  But hey, having flown halfway round the world and driven a few hundred miles to be here, there was no point stinting at the last minute.  It's only money! So off we went.

We elected to join a tour that took us to the Canadian side so had to clear immigration etc. The Americans in the party were waived through, we had to get a stamp in our passports.  Then it was off for a drive along the river front up to and past the Horseshoe falls then back to join

the other 4000 people/hour that the Maid of the Mist franchise puts through; each one getting their own souvenir plastic poncho.  These are exactly 0.1 microns thicker than the bare minimum that would disintegrate on touch or with the first drop of water.

Sailing into the mouth of the Horseshoe Falls is really very impressive and quite awe inspiring but the cormorant, bobbing around in the turbulent water below the falls, did not seem at all bothered by it all.

Back on the bus we were then taken down stream to see the whirlpool, the power plants and the floral clock (yawn) before being taken back to where we began the day for the "Walk behind the falls" and another chance to collect a souvenir poncho and get wet again.

Finally it was time to board the bus for the crawl though the traffic over the Rainbow Bridge back into the US.  Here customs was a total pain as we sat in the bus and waited at least 30 minutes even to have our existence acknowledged.  when they finally decided we had sat long enough the actual process, even for the Kiwi passports was brilliantly quick.

On top of the exorbitant price for the trip there was a large sign in the bus making it abundantly clear that a tip of 15% was expected (I hate America!)

Back at camp we collected our car and drove back to Niagara to walk through the Park on Goat Island and get a close up look from the American side. The plan was to slowly wander around until it got dark and then have a look at the falls under lights.

As we were wandering back off the massive viewing platform that the Americans have built in an attempt to see the falls without crossing the border (which you really have to do if you want to see them at all without taking a boat ride) we noticed people taking photos seemingly of the Canadian sky, rather than the falls.

Taking a look it was easy to see why;  an idiot was crossing a wire between the Skylon Tower and the neighbouring skyscraper.

Apparently this 68-year old is attempting to do this 80 days in a row over summer.  He missed one day last week because of 50mph winds - wimp!

Eventually it got dark, the lights came on and we were totally underwhelmed.  maybe it is more impressive from Canada?


States: New York, Ontario, Canada

Washington week - 5 to 11 October 2006

It was time to hop across “the pond” for a family visit in Bellingham, WA. While there we went back up Mt Baker, the local volcano and a prominent landmark, to see the autumn colours.


When we were last there it was winter and the snow cover meant the road access finished at the ski lodges.







This time the road was open all the way to the top car park and from there we did the short climb up Table Mountain. (see more pictures)


October 2006 ... contrasted to ... February 2005

We also popped across the border into Canada to re-visit Minter Gardens. We had hoped that the autumn colours might be in evidence but were just a bit early to see the Maples and Acers in all their autumn splendour. (see more pictures)






Totally non-dependant on the season was the Seattle Museum of Flight: a place one could clearly spend days fully absorbing all the exhibits. We only had hours but enjoyed all we saw regardless.

All too soon our time in Washington was over and it was time to rush to the departure gate.